While investigators said that Siebert admitted to as many as 13 killings across the United States, he was not a suspect in any of the other deaths initially attributed to a killer dubbed the Southside Slayer.

Authorities said their attention was drawn to Siebert by police in Talladega, Ala., who learned that the suspect in five murders there had formerly resided in Southern California, working as a painter and frequenting the Hollywood area.

Siebert died in prison, at 53, in 2008.

Since the early 1980s, at least five serial killers, and possibly more, were active in the South Los Angeles area. These killers targeted mostly young African American women, dumping their bodies in alleys, vacant buildings or parks.